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rinueI have a new photoblog at rinue.tumblr.com that's probably going to be the home for more of my day-to-day "this is what my life is like" - more a document of the objects in my life, the things that are stable and continuous, which don't take a lot of words. Whereas here I'll probably be my irrepressibly ranty and longwinded self. So far, it's just three posts: a cup of coffee, a pair of shoes, and a bottle of cognac.
I watched Chronicle on Friday, and it's to a large extent what every Marvel property tried to do, but mostly lacked the skill to tell: misfit teenager develops mutant powers, still has teenage/outcast problems that are not resolved by mutant powers, finds new comrades, and experiences both heightened joy and heightened conflict. I loved the first half, and wished the second half was a completely different movie.
From here on out, I'm writing with the assumption that you've seen the movie, and I talk about plot developments and the ending.
I pretty much checked out when Steve died. Not just because I liked Steve, although I did like Steve, and not just because the relationship between Steve and Andrew was the thing I cared most about in the movie and it no longer existed. I checked out because at the point the ending was completely inevitable. Oh, it was likely before that. It was heavily signaled before that. It was what I assumed from the trailer. But it was what I was hoping wouldn't happen.
That's not fair to the movie; they wanted to tell a different story than I wanted to hear, and they told it well. Andrew's decent was unique, true to character, and contained some great sequences. I think Ciro's right in saying they should have killed Matt instead, which would have spared them a "white guy in Tibet" ending, along with avoiding "black guy dies," and it would have given Matt's girlfriend something to do other than be a second camera -- she could have investigated what happened to Matt, which would have given her some agency. It would have given more weight to the conflict -- "we're friends" would count more to Andrew than "we're family," since he only has one friend and his family is shit, and "Matt said we needed rules" with dead Matt means more than "I said we needed rules" with dead Steve. And it would have stopped me wondering where Andrew's aunt and uncle are and why they aren't intervening in his dangerous home situation, even though he hangs out with his well-adjusted cousin every day and they'd have to be aware of what's going on.
I like that Andrew's powers didn't save him. I don't like the cynicism that says if a kid comes from a broken home, it's inevitable that he'll become a villain once he gets any power. I know plenty of people who came from terrible homes, were bullied unremittingly, and who grew up to be incredibly compassionate adults. It doesn't always happen. But I know more outcasts who became artists than I know outcasts who became trenchcoat mafia. The filmmakers didn't ever seem to think it was possible.
Again, I'm probably not being fair. They were probably trying to make a film where the audience sympathizes with the main character as he does increasingly horrible things. And they did. But it's easy for me to sympathize with the main character; he's friends of mine. I'm Steve. We came out of it okay.
I'm of course not as cool as Steve. And I'll watch the movie again some other time when I can watch it for what it was and not what it wasn't.
I watched Chronicle on Friday, and it's to a large extent what every Marvel property tried to do, but mostly lacked the skill to tell: misfit teenager develops mutant powers, still has teenage/outcast problems that are not resolved by mutant powers, finds new comrades, and experiences both heightened joy and heightened conflict. I loved the first half, and wished the second half was a completely different movie.
From here on out, I'm writing with the assumption that you've seen the movie, and I talk about plot developments and the ending.
I pretty much checked out when Steve died. Not just because I liked Steve, although I did like Steve, and not just because the relationship between Steve and Andrew was the thing I cared most about in the movie and it no longer existed. I checked out because at the point the ending was completely inevitable. Oh, it was likely before that. It was heavily signaled before that. It was what I assumed from the trailer. But it was what I was hoping wouldn't happen.
That's not fair to the movie; they wanted to tell a different story than I wanted to hear, and they told it well. Andrew's decent was unique, true to character, and contained some great sequences. I think Ciro's right in saying they should have killed Matt instead, which would have spared them a "white guy in Tibet" ending, along with avoiding "black guy dies," and it would have given Matt's girlfriend something to do other than be a second camera -- she could have investigated what happened to Matt, which would have given her some agency. It would have given more weight to the conflict -- "we're friends" would count more to Andrew than "we're family," since he only has one friend and his family is shit, and "Matt said we needed rules" with dead Matt means more than "I said we needed rules" with dead Steve. And it would have stopped me wondering where Andrew's aunt and uncle are and why they aren't intervening in his dangerous home situation, even though he hangs out with his well-adjusted cousin every day and they'd have to be aware of what's going on.
I like that Andrew's powers didn't save him. I don't like the cynicism that says if a kid comes from a broken home, it's inevitable that he'll become a villain once he gets any power. I know plenty of people who came from terrible homes, were bullied unremittingly, and who grew up to be incredibly compassionate adults. It doesn't always happen. But I know more outcasts who became artists than I know outcasts who became trenchcoat mafia. The filmmakers didn't ever seem to think it was possible.
Again, I'm probably not being fair. They were probably trying to make a film where the audience sympathizes with the main character as he does increasingly horrible things. And they did. But it's easy for me to sympathize with the main character; he's friends of mine. I'm Steve. We came out of it okay.
I'm of course not as cool as Steve. And I'll watch the movie again some other time when I can watch it for what it was and not what it wasn't.
